Democrats: Donations to Boughton should have raised a 'red flag'

News-Times, The (Danbury, CT)

Published 8:00 pm, Friday, October 12, 2007

"This is not about people over politics," said Helena Abrantes, who is running against Boughton on the Democratic ticket in the Nov. 6 election. "This is about large contributions bundled together to receive favor in City Hall. I don't think the voters will like the smell of this very much come November."

Galante, the owner of Automated Waste Disposal who was arrested on federal racketeering charges last summer, was charged by state police Friday for allegedly making illegal campaign contributions to Boughton and state senators Louis DeLuca and David Cappiello.

The trash mogul allegedly circumvented maximum contribution laws by having friends and associates make donations to the political committees. State law says an individual can't contribute more than $1,000 to a committee. The Hartford Courant reported that Boughton's political action committee, People Over Politics, received eight checks worth a total of $8,000 on Oct. 26, 2003.

At least one of the checks came from Paul DiNardo, a former chief executive officer of AWD who was indicted last year as part of the federal probe, according to campaign reports obtained Friday by The News-Times.

"A red flag should have been raised when a committee receives eight maximum donation checks near the eve of an election," said Joseph DaSilva Jr., chairman of the Danbury Democratic Town Committee. "Common sense should have dictated that this money came from a single source. Whether it was unintentional or willful blindness doesn't matter. Common sense should have prevailed."

Boughton said Friday that political committees receive thousands of checks from thousands of individual donors.

"We assume the person's name on the check is the person making the donation," he said. "If we had any knowledge that these people were being reimbursed for their donation we would have given the money back and notified the authorities."

Abrantes also questioned the timing of the donations and the state's reporting schedule for campaign contributions.

"If these contributions were made within seven days of the election, it means that they wouldn't have been revealed until after the election," she said. "It's very concerning. I know who all my top contributors are."

"Galante was throwing money all over the place," he said. "Nobody has said that Boughton did anything wrong here. All the contributions were duly reported according to state law and have been available for viewing to the public since that time at the Secretary of State's office."

Baker said he doubts the contributions will become a significant factor in next month's election.

"I don't think this is something that would elect Helena Abrantes," he said. "It would take a lot more than that."

Galante, who was charged with three counts each of making illegal campaign contributions and corrupt practices, was released on $50,000 bail and is expected to appear in Hartford Superior Court for an arraignment hearing Oct. 24.